Ungreasing the wheels: Governments around the world are making life difficult for corrupt firms

The Economist speaks on corporate bribery the world over, and the attempts (feeble?) to combat it.

“IF EVER a clash was inevitable between one country’s commercial law and another’s business culture, it would be between America’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), which seeks to punish firms that bribe government officials, and China, where many businesses are owned by the government and bribery is endemic. A recent spate of prosecutions under the act of firms operating in China and other notoriously crooked places has stoked fear in the heart of many executives. Nor is the crackdown limited to America. On November 18th the British government became the latest to promise tough new anti-corruption legislation, during the annual Queen’s Speech to Parliament.”